Safi paced back and forth erratically, she had been for a few hours, she had practically frayed a path down the middle of the hotel carpet.
She clutched her left elbow in her right hand, biting her nails which were very badly painted a bright yellow.
It had been a whole night since they got a lift on the night bus. A whole night since Marge went bouncing out of the house like a great big ball of spite and fat, up up up into the sky.
Safi had been woken up by Harry pushing her off the bed and sending her sprawling to the bus floor, which made her shriek, you don't know whose walked or even pissed in public transport, even if it is wizard.
But then they'd gotten inside, and Harry had been beckoned away by some Igor looking bloke, and Safi was sent to a dusty hotel room.
For the first few minutes, she was okay, still a bit groggy from her nap, her curls all askew from the sleep.
But slowly, like a leak in a roof, all the worst possible thoughts and realisations started crawling into her mind like spiders.
She shivered imperceptibly, goose bumps spraying across her skin as the real facts seeped into her brain.
The fact that they were without a home now and she had actually punched the lights out of her would-be guardian made her think that they were well and truly down the shit bucket.
Oh, and Harry totally blew up Aunt Marge.
Safi let out a hot breath as she bent over herself at the edge of the dodgy bed, her knees touching her throat, she could feel her heartbeat practically pushing against her thighs.
They were going to be expelled. Thrown out of Hogwarts like last weeks pumpkins.
They hadn't really ever had a home, but at least they'd had a house.
Even though they could definitely take care of themselves, they couldn't actually buy a house for themselves, that'd be totally illegal.
And they couldn't very well stay with the Weasleys, Dumbledore would never allow it, no matter how much Safi threatened him.
Her face was burning red but somehow it was completely numb, and she shot up from the edge of the bed, her hands automatically flinging up to clutch her head.
Oh Merlin's tits.
They were done for.
"We're done for" she whispered.
"Whaddya mean?" a voice lifted sweetly.
Safi twisted her torso around, still clutching her head and her gaze landed on the small face that was peaking through the door.
The blonde let go of her head, her curls bouncing out seemingly as excited as Safi now felt.
"Cherie!" she cried, flinging her arms madly as she bounded across the room, shouldering the door open and throwing herself on the skinny girl.
Cherie grinned her calm, gentle grin, wrapping her blue jumper-clad arms around her best friend.
"Missed you too, you big softie!" she said softly, squeezing her around the waist.
Cherie Calloway had been Safi's best mate since they both sat on the train to Hogwarts in first year.
Safi had chosen to sit next to the stick-thin girl with big dark eyes and long black curls, and found in her a gentle soul, more soft and pure than a fresh dawn of snow.
Ever since then they've shared countless nights of sobbing into each others shoulders, laughing loudly at some stupid thing, and probably attempting some really dumb and dangerous thing.
Then again, it was Safi doing something dumb, Cherie just watched, biting her nails in utter anxiety. But that didn't deter Cherie, she always absolutely loved Safi to bits.
People often gave Cherie a hard time. Being one of the only black girls in Hogwarts AND being a muggle born really put the odds against her.
So that's where Safi steps in, ready to throw fists as soon as someone so much as gives Cherie a wonky eye.
You could say it's an obvious 'opposites attract' friendship, but really it was more of a 'you stand close by and watch me do this dumb shit and support me doing this dumb shit and I'll adore you forever' type of friendship. And in reality, those are the best types of friendships.
"You bloody beautiful girl, where've you been all my life" Safi cooed dramatically, fanning her lashes at Cherie's amused face.
Cherie just chuckled and cross her tiny arms across her chest.
"I, unlike SOME people-" she enunciated, making Safi squirm guiltily, "have been keeping out of trouble" she finished, a manicured brow raised in mild disappointment.
Safi let out a huff before she gave an indifferent shrug.
"Look at this point you're going to have to be a lot more specific about what trouble I've been getting into" she laughed brightly, spinning and jumping onto the bed, sending plumes of dust billowing up to the roof, making her cough and gag with all the grace and poise of a sailor.
Cherie let out a girlie giggle as she reflexively flipped her cherry wood wand from her sleeve into her hand, mumbling an incantation that Safi probably forgot about or didn't bother to remember, and on command all the flying dust sucked itself into a great, rather disgusting whirlwind and furled itself out the window.
Safi sat back onto the bed on her elbows, an
impressed smirk on her face.
"Teachers pet" she teased as Cherie daintily crossed the room and sat on the edge of the now clean bed next to her.
Cherie had a small smile for a moment, before it slipped away, and her face grew somber and soft, like a concerned mother, or rather, a worried friend.
"Want to tell me what happened that suddenly means you're done for?" Cherie prodded nicely, sliding a comforting hand across the bed to Safi.
Safi mulled over her thoughts for a moment, before she slowly reached out and took the comforting hand, recanting the last few days, dramatically retelling every single detail, but not without a small hint of sadness and worry.
After all was said, Cherie sat back against the bed post and let out a small snort.
"She...blew up? Do you mean explosion or like a football?" she questioned, hiding her bright smile behind her hand.
Safi rolled her eyes.
"Football obviously, if it was an explosion we'd be having this conversation behind Azkaban bars" Safi joked loudly, but then she realised soon that no laugh was returned.
The room was quiet for a moment too long, just the sound of water dripping somewhere, and a creak from the room above.
It seemed like a normal silence, but Safi soon began to feel sick, the kind of sick that makes you want to be alone and crying your heart out in a corner.
And as Cherie's face creased in utter fear, Safi knew that nothing was funny anymore.
"Safi...you shouldn't joke about that" Cherie paused, a certain cold lull settling into the room, like someone just turned all sources of anything comforting and warm off. "Not after what's happened" she whispered coldly, a shiver passing through her.
Safi just stared at Cherie, not really knowing what to say, just wanting this horrible feeling to pass.
But it didn't pass, it didn't shake, and it slowly started to feel worse and worse, like a snaking wound around her gut, squeezing tightly.
She could barely even move her lips, barely even see through the pain her head was banging into her, her whole body was screaming.
"What do you mean?" Safi squeezed out, her eyes widening as the colder grew thicker and thicker in her heart.
For that moment, the whole world was cold, and dark, and for Safi, it was so terribly familiar.
But then it was gone, like a flickering flame.
And Harry, Ron and Hermione walked into the room.
"Saf? Are you okay?" Ron asked, his brow creased in concern, making his freckles look squashed on his long face.
Safi blinked once, twice, then she carefully placed a smirk on her face and relaxed her shoulders, the perfect facade.
"'Course I am, Ronniekins" she teased lightly, making Ron roll his eyes and everyone else in the room snicker.
Ron mumbled some weak insult under his breath before he turned away and walked out the door, his mangy pet rat in his hands whose name Safi had honestly forgotten.
"So what's the verdict, Potter?" Safi suddenly perked up, feeling the cold vice on her heart finally lift. "Are you going to be carted off and locked away?".
Harry shook his head, an almost dizzy look clouding his face.
"No, I'm not even expelled!" he cried happily, throwing himself onto the bed next to Safi and Cherie. "I can't believe it, I thought I was going to be executed on the spot".
Safi snorted, automatically throwing an arm around Harry's shoulders.
"They're about likely as execute you as they are to free house elves" Cherie sighed, giving Harry a comforting pat on the back.
The three then sat in content silence, before Hermione cleared her throat.
"Mrs Weasley's made dinner. And Mr Weasley said he wanted to talk to you, Harry" she announced curtly, lifting a hand to stroke Crookshank's rather ugly, yellow fur.
Harry turned and exchanged a brief glance of concern with Safi, before he rose from the bed, giving her hand one last comforting squeeze.
Safi watched him exit the door, an uneasy feeling falling over her. But as quickly as it came, she shoved it down, deep inside her. She had enough to worry about, and an oncoming premonition wasn't something she needed to have right now.
Stupid mind powers.
The blonde bounced off the bed, landing lightly on the soles of her black boots, her curls swirling in the air as she pivots to the door.
She had nearly made it out the door, when Hermione nabbed onto the back of her yellow, wooden jumper, and pulled her back.
Hermione fixed her with a stern glare, and as it happens so did Crookshanks.
"Please tell me you're going to get the food rather than go and eavesdrop on whatever Mr Weasley is saying to Harry?" she questioned, her brow twitching in question.
Safi feigned shock, her hand raising to point to herself in mock question.
"Me? You accuse me? An innocent girl of eavesdropping?! Unthinkable!" she screamed dramatically, fixing Hermione with a shake of the head.
"I'm disappointed in your accusations" she finished, and as she walked out the door, walking a little too fast, she ignored Hermione's cries of protest and accusation as she walked straight to where she thought Harry and Arthur might be having their rather curious little conversation.
Two corridors, a wrong turn into a bathroom, and 5 empty rooms later, Safi heard the tell tale voices of none other than her would be brother and Mr Weasley, in the open area of the hotel dining room.
She slunk into the shadows, crouching down behind a wooden half wall, holding the wrist of her sleeve up to her mouth to smother her breathing, and she perked her ears towards them.
And slowly, the hushed voices drifted to her.
"...what do you know of Sirius Black, Harry?" Arthur whispered.
Suddenly, an invisible blow landed itself into Safi's heart, and it took all of strength for her not to launch herself over the bannister and shake Mr Weasley for more answers.
Black.
The name?
"Sirius..." Safi whispered to herself, her stomach started churning again, but this time it didn't feel like a premonition, it felt like...a memory. Something lost and far away...
"That he escaped from Azkaban, that he killed someone" Harry answered, giving out what little he actually did know studiously.
There was a pregnant pause then, as Safi heard shuffling feet, and she assumed that this conversation was rather hard for Arthur to make.
"Harry, thirteen years ago, when you stopped..." Arthur broke his words, Safi could practically feel the fear rushing from his words as he dare not speak his name.
But Harry didn't care about fear when it came to that murderers name.
"Voldemort" Harry answered strongly, and poignant pride rose in Safi's chest. She was always so proud of Harry as he took on his battle of the world, few others could.
There was another pause, before Arthur swallowed, continuing his point.
"Black lost everything—-"
Then, Safi's mind flew open, like a new door had been opened in her mind, and a small flash sparked behind her eyes.
A memory.
A memory that came so close but she couldn't quite reach, just brimming on the edge of her mind, and she had to bite down on her cheek to keep herself from screaming. A pounding of familiarity drumming in her mind.
"—-but he remains a loyal servant to this day. In his mind, only you stand in the way of..."
Again, Arthur paused, the fear in his voice obvious.
"You know who...returning to power. And that is why, he's escaped from Azkaban. To find you..." he finished grimly, his breath coming out almost ragged and chaste.
Fear then found itself into Safi's heart.
Harry.
He was coming after Harry.
Two parts of her body seemed to be screaming inside of her, and for some reason, she just felt, she didn't know why, that Mr Weasley was completely wrong.
But what she heard plain as day was that a murderer was coming after Harry.
And that meant she had to be ready.
Now she really felt like she was going to vomit.
She crept as quickly as she could away from everyone, running down random hallways and through any door that would open, until she found herself crouching in the corner on a stony, cold balcony, overlooking the evening sky and Diagon Alley below.
It was moments like these when she found herself alone that it really dawned on her how cruel the world could be.
She was an orphan, and orphan with an orphan brother who was constantly trying to be killed.
They were only children, and yet Harry seemed to be the one everyone in the world relied upon to save them all.
And she seemed to be the one to save Harry.
Was anyone going to save her?
"Safi?"
Safi's heart seized in her chest as she jumped up onto her feet, and as her arms flung up she hit her hand brutally on the iron bars of the balcony, which made her cry out.
"Fuck!" she yelled, clutching her hand to her chest, as she slowly looked up to the door, and very quickly realised she was face to face with none other than George Weasley.
But wait—-
Something was different?
She looked him up and down very slowly, the pain of her hand forgotten, and for a moment, so were her dark thoughts.
She opened her mouth to say something to him, but she couldn't find the words.
George Weasley was just too hot at this moment.
The last time she had seen him was at the end of last term, and he was a gangly, short haired nerd, and they were laughing madly as the threw toilet paper at Professor Qyburn because he failed Safi on her final paper.
But standing before her was a long haired, impossibly tall boy, with a soul crushing smirk and a toned body to die for.
She soon realised that as she had been gawking openly, that George was laughing madly at her.
"See something good? I've never seen you stare this hard since we found that bloody Marauders map" he joked easily, a cheeky grin splitting his stupidly hot face.
Safi righted herself and let out a scoff, leaning against the bars of the balcony with a raised brow.
"Okay, Captain Charisma, at least I didn't nearly have a heart attack when Katie Bell wore short shorts to the Black Lake picnic trip" she retorted.
George tilted his head back and guffawed loudly, which made Safi smile even wider.
"Bollocks! You were the one that suggested she wear the shorts that day, you were having as much a gander as I was" he laughed.
"Merlin his laugh sounds good" Safi thought to herself, before she shook her head violently and nodded slowly.
"Touché" she admitted, raising her hands in surrender.
George then leaned across the tiny balcony, his long legs crossing over so he was comfortable and he smiled sweetly at her.
"So why were you crying?" he finally asked gently, resting his hand on the bars next to hers.
Safi almost shivered at the minuscule contact, before she retracted her hand, folding them across her chest defensively.
"I wasn't" she said dumbly.
Safi thought he might then joke with her, but he didn't, he just kept staring into her eyes, his face looking so comforting.
"Saf..." he whispered, resting his head against her. "You don't have to be so strong all the time, you know, no one is asking you to" he said, impossibly softly.
"Yes they are" she whispered back, her eyes downcast for a moment, but she sniffled, cleared her throat and stood up, making George's head fall back.
Safi walked to the door, an easy smirk resting on her face.
"C'mon ugly, lets go wreak havoc or something" she demanded, winking at him jokingly.
George stared at her for a few more moments in silence, before he finally decided to drop the moment, and smiled lightly, reaching down to grip her hand softly in his.
"If that's what you want, Saf" he said quietly, staring into her eyes as he craned his head.
Safi sucked in a breath, freezing at the sudden contact, and she almost started crying again, before she broke out into light giggles.
"That's exactly what I want, Georgie".
